


Misplaced

by Honeychild



Series: 3RACHA coven [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bang Chan is a Sweetheart, Chan is a coffee addict in this ff, Han Jisung | Han is a Sweetheart, Herbology, Jisung is a sad boi, Loneliness, M/M, Starring the lavender from my last fic, Witch Bang Chan, Witch Han Jisung | Han, a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:27:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22393282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honeychild/pseuds/Honeychild
Summary: After turning 16 Jisung left his family to find a coven on his own. For two years he stayed lonely and he was about to lose all hope when a kindred spirit sat down at his table in a bustling coffee shop at 3 am.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Han Jisung | Han
Series: 3RACHA coven [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1611796
Comments: 8
Kudos: 149





	Misplaced

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys!
> 
> This fic is a prequel to "A cold winter, a helpless spring, a warm summers day" but can also be read as a stand alone.  
> Feel free to check out the "the parent fic" if you feel like it (*-*)/ https://archiveofourown.org/works/21435475
> 
> Anyways! Thanks for reading and I hope you'll enjoy it <3

Jisung clutched his amulet with dried herbs closer to his chest as he hurried through the narrow alleyways of Seoul. The walls of the buildings left and right seemed to bend towards him, as if trying to close over his head, trying to swallow him whole. His chest grew tighter with each step he took.

Jisung despised the city. The unmoving grey, the stench, the dirt. It wasn’t even real dirt. It wasn’t soil or rotting leaves. It was smog, washed off the façades of skyscrapers by sour rain and trash humans had left behind carelessly.

Nothing could grow here, nothing could flourish or bloom. 

Everything was just grey and dead. 

Even the dried herbs in his amulet reminded him of that fact. 

They came from far away, just like him. From a place that was green and so full of life, you could hear the earth sing, if you listened carefully.

His mother had given him the neckless as a farewell gift. It contained thyme, chamomile and enchanter’s nightshade, everything his mother had wished him for his way. 

When he brought the amulet to his nose, he could still smell the herbs faintly. But after two years they had almost completely lost their strength. 

And even the encouraging words his mother had offered before he left, had lost their meaning over the years he was away. He barley could recall them at this point. 

The city was no place for a green witch, Jisung knew that, but he had not been successful on his search for a coven on the countryside for two years. And desperate times called for desperate measures. 

It wasn’t like there weren’t any covens on the countryside. There were plenty. Far more than in the cities. But all covens had been complete already. 

Nobody had wanted him. 

Maybe other lonely witches would gather in the city like the trash gathered in its alleys. Unwanted, discarded, lost. That was what Jisung hoped at least. 

At least he had found a more or less decent 24/7 coffeeshop in his depressing six month long stay. The iced americano didn’t give him belly aches and the background music they played was acceptable.

That coffeeshop was where he was headed that night. He had been going insane (again) in his shitty motel room. He just needed to see people, even if he wouldn’t talk to them, he just couldn’t stand the emptiness of his room anymore.

Admittedly, 3 am was not really a healthy time to drink coffee, but when Jisung pushed the door to his favourite coffeeshop open, the store was just as busy as ever. 

A wave of warm air washed over him and brought the smell of freshly brewed coffee with it. Inviting him to sit at his usual table with an iced americano. Which was exactly what he did.

He found himself in this shop at least every other night, to watch the busy bustle of the people. Since he was very shy, he never had the heart to talk to someone he didn’t know and the demeanour of the people in the shop didn’t exactly encourage him to go talk to one of them. So, watching them from a far was the peak of social interaction he got from his visits.

They all looked the same to him anyway. Grey faces, brows furrowed in stress, bags under their eyes. Impatience made their movements rough and curt. 

Nobody took the time to sit down on one of the few tables, like he had. Everybody rushed through the shop, while he stayed put. 

It felt like the world had started to spin faster while he had stopped moving all together, floating in space aimlessly. To slow to catch up. Lost and alone.

Jisung tried to will down the rising sob in his chest, but only half succeeded. Out came a choked huff for which he could have kicked his own butt. If he was gonna cry and drown in self-pity he could at least do it at the motel, where no one could hear him sobbing into his pillow.

He was so caught up in his head, that he didn’t notice a stranger walking towards his table until he stood right in front of him, clearing his throat.

“Hey, can I sit here?”, the stranger asked, causing the young witch to look up, startled.

He was met with the sight of a pale young man, maybe a few years older than him, in a ridiculously big black hoodie that drowned his frame in fabric. Unruly blonde curls sticked out from under the pulled-up hood and tired, dark eyes blinked back at Jisung, expecting an answer. 

The air started buzzing, as they both stared at each other in silence.

“Uh,” mumbled the witch, eyeing all the empty tables,” yeah, sure. Have a seat.”

“Thanks”, the other said and let himself fall onto the chair opposite of Jisung with a huff.

Only now Jisung noticed that the guy carried not only one cup of coffee, but two. Filled to the brim with black and brown liquid, swirling like a bitter little galaxy.

When Jisung finally looked up from the insane amount of espresso in the stranger’s hands, he found a pair of eyes already looking at him. They had the same colour as the espresso. The same inviting, dark depth. The same warmth.

Then, it hit him.

He could _feel_ the energy in the other’s body, almost making the air vibrate, but must definitely making Jisung’s heart sing.

“You- you are…?”, he forced out of his suddenly dry throat.

“Yep”, answered the stranger nonchalantly.

The other grinned over the curve of the cup he had put to his lips. With one big gulp the coffee was gone, and he put the empty cup under the still full one, slotting them together.

“It’s rare to find a kindred spirit in the city”, the stranger went on, while Jisung was still in shock, “What is a green witch doing here anyway?”

Jisung didn’t know how to answer that question. Or how to open his mouth. His body had given up any kind of function, leaving him a silent sculpture. All he could do was to blink dumbly at the other’s stacked cups, as the words “kindred spirit” swam in his head. Where there four brims?

“Someone like you should wander beneath trees and bury his toes in fresh grass and fallen leaves. You shouldn’t be trapped between walls that scrape at the sky and only have lifeless things around you”, added the stranger gently. 

Jisung didn’t know he had needed someone to remind him of that.

But he did.

The stranger was right. Jisung knew that. But it was hard to admit he had failed again. To except he had to pack his things and travel to the next place, to move on. He had enough of meeting the same disappointment over and over again. To knock on doors and not be left inside.

And maybe, even if Jisung would never admit that, he almost enjoyed withering away in the city and drowning in self-pity. In the city he could at least hurt on his own terms. 

“And you?”, Jisung croaked, vocal cords, neglected for days, protesting, “You are a hedge witch, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you search for old ruins and places with centuries-worth of strong emotion? For people that are haunted by spirits?”

_Aren’t you just as misplaced as me?_

The blond rolled his remaining cup between his palms. The glance he shot Jisung gave away, that he knew exactly that Jisung only had asked to distract from himself. 

“You would be surprised at how emotionally loaded the city actually is. It’s not like there is no material for my magic to work with, like in your case.”

The stranger reacted a lot calmer and collected than Jisung had, even though he must have had at least three double espressos already. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, sure. Here are so many people. What did you expect? That they all feel nothing?”

Jisung had honestly thought that, yeah. When he had watched the people stream through the front door of the coffeeshop, all he had seen were half-dead puppets, following their daily routine without questioning. 

When Jisung looked at them he felt like, he may still have a little life left in himself. That he wasn’t that far gone yet. But he wouldn’t tell the hedge witch that. Instead he asked:

“Isn’t that all too much for you? All the people, I mean?”

Green witches avoided the city because they needed living things, the energy of plants and the earth for their magic. Hedge witches on the other side where very sensitive to the energy people and spirits produced. Masses of people, like in the city, had to be a sensory overload Jisung couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“Yeah it’s pretty stressful to be here”, said the blond nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders, while sipping on his last cup of coffee.

It didn’t seem like he would further elaborate, so Jisung just asked the next thing that came to his mind:

“What do they feel?”

“People here?”

Jisung nodded.

The blond looked at Jisung for a long while before answering. His dark coffee eyes made him fidget on his chair. They seemed to see right through him.

“Sadness. Loneliness. Stress. Frustration”, he answered finally.

Jisung couldn’t help the surprised “Oh?” that slipped him. He didn’t really know what he had expected. But he didn’t expect the answer to hit this close to home.

“Places like this one here are the worst to be honest”, the older of the two continued, “People just run through here. They order and then leave. The customers don’t have time to spare a glance and the employees are occupied with all the orders going in. No one notices when someone sits here for hours alone.”

Jisung looked into his half-finished coffee. His own personal bitter galaxy looked right back at him with the eyes of his mirrored self.

Jisung didn’t notice he was crying until a tear made the reflexion in his cup ripple.

”What is your name?”, asked the other witch softly.

“Jisung. Han Jisung”, murmured the younger while rubbing the sleeve of his sweater over his eyes hurriedly.

“Nice to meet you Jisung. I’m Chan. Or you can call me Chris if you want.”

Chan stretched out his hand over the table to shake Jisung’s, but the young green witch didn’t get the older’s intention in his haze and took his hand in both of his instead. Clutching tightly.

“Really nice to meet you.”

Chan grinned while patting the youngers hands gently.

“You know, I have a garden behind my house that could need some tending to… And you probably haven’t seen anything green for a while…”

Jisung laughed. When had been the last time he had truly laughed?

“Are you trying to lure me with free-candy?”

“Free candy? I said I have a garden”, said the older, clearly puzzled.

“Hyung! That’s a meme, don’t tell me you don’t know what that is!”

“…Meme? I know pantomime. Is it something like that?”

“Okay I think you need help old man.”

“Yeah, but with my garden, not with candy. I can eat that by myself. And I am not _that_ old yet”, said Chan, pouty about being called out. 

The older gulped down the last bit of his coffee while mustering Jisung with fake hurt. He kept the grumpy expression until the green witch pushed his unfinished americano in the older’s hands.

Jisung had to smile at the way the other’s whole face lit up at the gesture. And his general cluelessness over modern culture was kind of endearing as well. It was very like hedge witches to live by centuries and forget half the world. The internet must be an invention of yesterday for Chan.

“I’ll take a look at that garden.”

“And I’ll see if I still have some real candy for you.”

Jisung was really about to go home with a stranger. He couldn’t believe it.

“Okay, deal.”

***

The garden needed a lot of help. Like a shit ton. 

None of the plants were dying, thankfully, but everything looked wild and unruly. It would take months to get some sort of order back into the garden.

When Jisung had told Chan that it would take a while, the older had rubbed his nape clearly embarrassed and said:

“Feel free to go whenever you want to. Don’t feel obligated to finish the garden. I don’t won’t to keep you from your search.”

And at the beginning that had been Jisung’s plan anyway. Tend to the garden, bask in the green of Chan’s backyard until he had enough strength to move on with his quest of finding a coven.

But when Chan started to hug him whenever he came back from work in the late evening, his resolve began to crumble. 

And when the blond called him into the kitchen one fine day, greeting him with shy sparkles in his dark eyes and a giddy smile making his cheek dimple, Jisung knew he was gone for.

On the kitchen table layed lavender, thyme and marjoram saplings and a little jar of yarrow seeds Chan had bought for him. 

The older had watched with a proud grin as Jisung started to gush over the herbs before him, checking their roots and investigating their leaves carefully. The grin only grew wider when Jisung fell into the older’s arms with lots of whispered “thank you”s on his lips and the glass of yarrow seeds clutched close to his chest.

Jisung wasn’t sure if Chan was aware of the meaning behind the herbs he had gifted to the younger, but he knew for sure that the hedge witch wanted him to stay.

So, he stayed.

And over the years the yarrow bloomed in the front yard of their home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hellou beautiful hooman <3
> 
> Thanks so much for reading until the end!
> 
> I moved from the countryside to the city for university recently and kind of projected my homesickness onto poor sungie here... Sorry my dear.  
> I miss the quiet and being able to walk to the forest in under ten minutes...  
> But I mean, in a city you can get coffee and food at any hour of the day so that's a mature plus...
> 
> What do you prefere?
> 
> Anyways!
> 
> xoxo Honeychild


End file.
